If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Hasbro cancelled the release of the Mandalorian Transport that held 6 figures. Maybe it will be released later? When the economy's better?

I never saw and have doubts that the Y-wing Bomber Mini-Rig (figure with vehicle) ever hit retail. I never saw it amongst the STAPs, Sith Speeder, Naboo Star Skiff, etc.

I also never saw the mini-rig that looked like the Republic Attack Shuttle in miniature with Obi-Wan Kenobi. I think this was cancelled and did not hit retail either. It was more attractive than the Republic mini ATTE Drop Ship type of mini-rig that was released with Anakin.

This does not bode well for the health of the line.

Kenner was eventually saturated with vehicle toys (like the Droids' White Witch, and a very bad example of a Blockade Runner) which never saw production and retail.

The Kenner line eventually died.

Hasbro has had a much stronger standing for nearly 20 years, compared to Kenner's 7 years of Star Wars back in the day (78-85).

Also, Clone Wars figures are tapering off - though I hope not before we get Riff Tamsen, some Trandoshans, Wookiees, Nightsisters, etc.

The movies are very nicely covered save for a lot of Padmes from the latter 2 PT films and obscure characters who I (as a diorama completist) want, but who will not be recognized by the casual and some part of the kid audience (like the Outlander bartender and 3-seconds of fame Separatists, blink-and-you-miss-them cantina patrons, etc.)

Future healthy sales of the line might revolve around the usual main cast of "essential characters," and the 3-D re-release of the other films, plus a possible size change for this next release of Luke, Vader, Obi-Wan, and action-scene-only Padmes (like the Arena or Hanger Battle). They can also return to role-play game play patterns or firing missiles and action features with the figures. Sales to the broadest audience being the goal in mind.

The move to doing "vintage style" cardbacks was long requested and if you recollect, also long delayed. I'm sure Hasbro was saving that as a last resort. "What will make our audience buy one LAST prequel trilogy Obi-Wan Kenobi? - his vintage style card with Ewan's photo on it." Plus of course they benefit from the old school vintage collectors' support for trying to get all the Kenner figures updated on traditional packaging. But how far does that go? To Sim Aloo and the Rancor Keeper? To Vader on SW, ESB, and ROTJ cards? Maybe every SW figure on ESB and ROTJ cards as well? To a Bespin Security Guard on a ROTJ card? (not even sure if there was one).

How do you feel about the current health of the line? Where should it go?

BAD Pts Need:R5-C7 lf leg (x2), , R4-P44 right leg BAD Pts Offered For Trade: PM me - I have lots of parts now including BG-J38!. New Kyle Katarn is also available.

How do you feel about the current health of the line? Where should it go?

Distribution issues are killing it, not quality of product. I now expect to find no figures when I look, and I am not interested in just buying stuff online to end up in Indiana Jones-style storage for me. I like "the hunt" I guess; that's all that's keeping me as a buyer. Without new stories (read: films, TV shows, EU, etc.), the toys are not going to last much longer.

"I went to Star Wars Celebration VII in Anaheim, and I didn't get even a lousy t-shirt."

Hasbro cancelled the release of the Mandalorian Transport that held 6 figures. Maybe it will be released later? When the economy's better?

They didn't cancel it - it was released all over the world (and seemingly in extremely small numbers online), just not in US retail stores. It was more of the "last wave" syndrome that typically only hurts the basic figures - this time, it hurt the vehicle line as well. I think it was just planned for release too close to the end of the line, before the TPM 3D changeover. It's frankly a somewhat boring ship that only shuttles Obi-Wan and Satine around, and it has nothing to do with Death Watch.

Originally Posted by Tycho

I never saw and have doubts that the Y-wing Bomber Mini-Rig (figure with vehicle) ever hit retail. I never saw it amongst the STAPs, Sith Speeder, Naboo Star Skiff, etc.

You're mixing up your Class I vehicles quite a bit here. The Y-wing Scout Bomber was released in 2011, and I got it at Walmart and saw it a few other times, so it was rare but it definitely hit retail. It wouldn't have shipped alongside this year's Darth Maul-packaged products, as it was during the Rex phase.

Originally Posted by Tycho

I also never saw the mini-rig that looked like the Republic Attack Shuttle in miniature with Obi-Wan Kenobi. I think this was cancelled and did not hit retail either. It was more attractive than the Republic mini ATTE Drop Ship type of mini-rig that was released with Anakin.

The Attack Recon Fighter with Obi-Wan was canceled - but it's the exact same ship (in a different color) that's out now with Anakin. (They've always designed products that don't get produced - the only thing that makes this different is that they included them in the convention presentation too early, before its final fate was a done deal, I assume.) The next Class I vehicle is the Republic Attack Dropship with Clone Pilot, which has hit overseas and is listed in-stock online; I don't know if anyone's found it yet.

All that aside, I am annoyed at how long the Naboo Starfighter is taking to get out there. The only way to get it online is by buying an entire case, and while I want the Republic Fighter Tank repaint, I don't need a repacked Anakin Jedi Starfighter (could they not have done a different Jedi's ship?).

Originally Posted by Tycho

Future healthy sales of the line might revolve around the usual main cast of "essential characters," and the 3-D re-release of the other films, plus a possible size change for this next release of Luke, Vader, Obi-Wan, and action-scene-only Padmes (like the Arena or Hanger Battle). They can also return to role-play game play patterns or firing missiles and action features with the figures. Sales to the broadest audience being the goal in mind.

They have the gameplay element and action features in The Clone Wars and Movie Heroes lines. The Movie Heroes line doesn't seem to be doing very well, but I think that's more due to the crappy figure choices that can't possibly satisfy kids OR collectors. But the upcoming Legacy Collection figures are all resculpts, aside from Mara Jade, but we have two figures of her in a different outfit already (and two of the build-a-droids; I don't consider Clone Wars-based realistic figures to be never-before-made versions, even if they're in a different style). A lot of them look great, but I don't know how many of them are updates that we really, truly wanted, so I do think they're trying to widen their base a bit again.

Obviously we'll never get a year full of completely new, never-before-done characters again, probably not even if the live-action TV show ever gets off the ground. But I wish they would bring more focus to The Clone Wars again - even if it's not everyone's cup of tea, it's a consistent source of cool new character designs (and easy clone repaints, which they seem to just not really care about anymore).

They really screwed up the distribution this year, along with a lot of other things. Some of these aren't in their control, but far too many of them are. Hopefully 2013 gets it back on track.

I'm in the same boat as far as distribution. I've seen very few new figures on the shelf for almost a year. I was able to grab three of the Return of the Jedi deleted scene figures from Walmart, but the cards were all in poor shape. I think those are the only three that I've purchased at retail since the first wave of Vintage hit. I got the other two deleted scene figures, Bastilla Shan, and the ARC trooper commander off eBay. There were a ton of others released that I would have liked to own but I just can't afford to pay premium prices for all of them or order full cases from online distributors right now. The kicker is that pegs are all empty right now at every single store that I've been to. If it's not on the shelf, we can't buy it.

Years of too many jedi starfighter repaints has killed this part of the line. I quit caring long before the clone wars JSF's started hitting. The only one I own came packed in with Jango Fett's Slave-one and if memory serves I told my son he could have it as soon as I opened it. I know Hasbro needs to get more mileage out of the molds, but clogging the shelves with the same crap in different colors has brought the whole train to a screeching halt. Any new things they do release seem to be packed in even numbers with shelf warmers creating a nearly instant backup. To top things off, they seriously over estimated demand for the episode one vehicles this year. I didn't buy any of them because I don't need another incarnation of the droid tank or pod racers. Having a newly sculpted cockpit in the tank or better deco on the pods isn't enough to get me to drop $100 (at least) on the three.

The experiment a few years ago with trying to move our interest to a higher pricepoint for vehicles was an utter failure and it shouldn't have been. If they'd released the clone wars Y-wing first instead of the same Arc-170 we already had 2 or 3 of at lower pricepoints, then we might be looking at 4-5 new vehicles a year in a slightly larger format (albeit with a higher price.) Instead, when ARC's instantly backed up it seems they decided we wouldn't spend that kind of money and went ultra cheap on getting more mileage from existing molds.

The second experiment with trying to shift the focus to cheaper (class I) vehicles is bombing as well. Again, I can't find the very few I'm actually interested in yet speeders and a select few other things that have been released multiple times are available in multiple colors.

So yes, I think this is the death of this part of the line, but it's been a long time coming and could have been avoided. It wouldn't surprise me at all to not have any class 2 vehicles next year and I'd be astonished if the subline still exists in 2014.

Years of too many jedi starfighter repaints has killed this part of the line. I quit caring long before the clone wars JSF's started hitting. The only one I own came packed in with Jango Fett's Slave-one and if memory serves I told my son he could have it as soon as I opened it. I know Hasbro needs to get more mileage out of the molds, but clogging the shelves with the same crap in different colors has brought the whole train to a screeching halt. Any new things they do release seem to be packed in even numbers with shelf warmers creating a nearly instant backup. To top things off, they seriously over estimated demand for the episode one vehicles this year. I didn't buy any of them because I don't need another incarnation of the droid tank or pod racers. Having a newly sculpted cockpit in the tank or better deco on the pods isn't enough to get me to drop $100 (at least) on the three.

The experiment a few years ago with trying to move our interest to a higher pricepoint for vehicles was an utter failure and it shouldn't have been. If they'd released the clone wars Y-wing first instead of the same Arc-170 we already had 2 or 3 of at lower pricepoints, then we might be looking at 4-5 new vehicles a year in a slightly larger format (albeit with a higher price.) Instead, when ARC's instantly backed up it seems they decided we wouldn't spend that kind of money and went ultra cheap on getting more mileage from existing molds.

The second experiment with trying to shift the focus to cheaper (class I) vehicles is bombing as well. Again, I can't find the very few I'm actually interested in yet speeders and a select few other things that have been released multiple times are available in multiple colors.

So yes, I think this is the death of this part of the line, but it's been a long time coming and could have been avoided. It wouldn't surprise me at all to not have any class 2 vehicles next year and I'd be astonished if the subline still exists in 2014.

I liked the repainted starfighters, since they were at least somewhat different. I'd rather see four or five newly colored ships than just Anakin's or Obi-Wan's being constantly re-released. They eased up off the repaints in the last few years but kind of dropped the focus on this - though I did see some ships relegated to the clearance line last year, which I think is the first time I've personally seen that happen. I know I'm in the minority but I'd still like to see a few more - Saesee Tiin's Eta-2 from the microseries, Barriss Offee's Delta-7B, Saesee's Delta-7B - since there are quite a few cool designs and Hasbro was just following the media on these. The repaints allow them to save money on tooling and at least get something out there; if they had the budget to make all-new vehicles all the time, they probably would have.

The only TPM mainline vehicle I got this year was the AAT, and I got two to display with the MTT (and because of the new cockpit). The $30 pricepoint is just too much to ask on re-releases, and now I still don't think anyone's found the Naboo Starfighter or green Republic Fighter Tank in stores. They said that they're trying to get the prices down on the vehicles, so hopefully that works out. I agree on the higher-priced vehicles, though. It's sad to see the Y-wings STILL rotting at every TRU.

Originally Posted by Tycho

As a matter of fact, though I don't need them, the V-wing fighters could be rereleased in Imperial paint schemes but be popular-as-ever since that was one of the last great vehicle releases!